In the wake of industry moves to develop a BAFE-adopted scheme, the first quality assurance scheme of companies offering fire risk assessment services has been launched by Warrington Certification.

The certification body previously criticised some industry bodies for attempting to dilute standards and moving too slowly in developing a BAFE scheme for risk assessment companies.

Warrington says its FRACS (Company) scheme is designed to help ensure that a company offering risk assessment services has the necessary technical and management skills to deliver fire risk assessments that the end user can rely on. The competencies of the company’s employees and the quality management system it operates will be assessed against benchmark criteria through an independent audit and examination process.

Last year, the certification body launched the first UKAS-accredited scheme for individual fire risk assessors. The new company scheme will also involve an element of assessment of individual fire risk assessors employed by companies seeking approval. The scheme will be submitted for UKAS accreditation once a successful pilot has been completed.

“FRACS (Company) has been specifically designed with [end users] in mind,” said Simon Ince, manager of personnel certification schemes for WCL. “It offers them a high level of assurance that the company they employ to complete their fire risk assessment does indeed possess the competencies to produce work of quality, and that the company will not subcontract work to individuals of unknown ability.

“We are very confident that companies who achieve certification through this scheme will be of a standard that the end user can rely upon. For the certificated company it will provide a substantial indication of ‘quality’ differentiation, and as with our other certification schemes we are confident it will be specified in tenders, particularly within the public sector.”

The launch of the scheme has come in the wake of criticism from Warrington that industry moves to develop a company scheme under BAFE are being diluted. Responding to the news, BAFE general manager Stephen Adams told info4fire that he welcomed the move by Warrington.

"We are not in competition with them – we're about improving standards across the board. There's no way that a BAFE scheme will be a second class one; we have to set a level high enough to ensure competency, but at the same time at a level that encompasses a sufficient number of companies who want to do it properly."